I wanted to just add a few thoughts to this discussion. I have been less available due to a large consulting gig in Malaysia.

First on installation, yes it is getting better. 1.4 is better in this area than 1.3 is. Also the 1.3 installer was written before we had to deal with Apache 2.4 and the fact is that the configuration files have to be different there. If you want it to be easy to install, you have to use Apache 2.2. Otherwise, there are some additional manual steps. It is supported but not well. People here tend to be reasonable at providing help provided one gets a good problem description and a polite request.

As always a good problem description includes what is happening, any error messages, etc.

I charge for installation on a flat rate. It isn't a lot. It isn't something I make a lot of money at, but if I am going to log into your computer, I want there to be a commercial relationship for your sake as well as mine. It ensures we agree on the scope of work and it avoids misunderstandings later.

There is some description as to how easy the installation can get. For a simple accounting system, the installation itself isn't that difficult, but the overall setup requires carefully thinking through the accounting implications. If you are moving from another system often the data import is many times more complex than the original installation (and usually requires special knowledge).

With an ERP though, there are some additional complexities, and in our case we depend on a lot of other modules in CPAN, plus a web server, etc. Delivering a perfectly portable, secure, easily installable application out of the box is not exactly easy in this environment if we want to preserve users' choices for things like which web server to use.

Long-run I expect virtualized images to be the easy installation option.